Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal AUs
by FrenchFryGirl
Summary: My catch-all for Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal AUs. Just about any Alternate Universe can be found here. From Mermaids to Robots, the Zexal gang exhausts all possibilities.
1. Prologue - Canon Universe

**Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal AUs **

**Prologue **

**Disclaimer:**I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal.

See bottom for notes.

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><p>Night had fallen over Heartland City. Everything was peaceful and quiet. The night was clear, the moon shone brightly in the sky, and all the stars were twinkling. A gentle breeze sifted through the trees, making a gentle rustling sound, adding to the insects' nightly chorus.<p>

For once all was calm. It was hard to believe that just a month or two ago the place had been the battleground for an interstellar war. But for now it was all over. No more mind-controlling Duel Monster cards, Tournaments hosted by corrupt alien politicians, hostile alien takeovers, or card games on roller-coasters.

Of course, there were plenty of _other_ weird things that happened in the city on a day-to-day basis, but for now, everything was just calm, peaceful, and quiet.

Well, almost everything.

Yuma Tsukumo, was for once _not_ the cause of the singular disturbance in the Tsukumo household.

He was, however, awakened by it.

The black and pink haired boy half-way opened his ruby russet eyes and blinked them blearily. Once his vision had slightly cleared, he looked around his room for the disturbance. Nothing seemed to be out of place. Everything was blanketed in a comforting night-time calm. Shifting slightly in his hammock he stretched slightly and turned his head to see Astral hovering slightly a few feet away from Yuma's head. Yuma smiled slightly. Astral must have fallen asleep like that again. He tried not to stare at Astral's blue glow for too long, because he didn't want to ruin his night vision. Apparently whatever the alien Astral being had done to regenerate his energy in the key before no longer worked, and he now had to sleep to regain energy, something they quickly discovered after his return to Earth. So now Astral usually slept either near Yuma or with him, whether it be on his actual bed, beneath his hammock in a sleeping bag, or, on one memorable occasion staying up all night stargazing, in the hammock itself. This had ended with them both falling to the floor in shock the next morning, waking up the whole household. Though, occasionally, especially when watching all-night marathons of Different Dimension ESPer Robin, Astral would just fall asleep where he stood… or floated.

Yuma's smile grew as he slipped out of his hammock, still not spotting whatever had caused the disturbance, so he figured it must have come from outside of his room. His tan bare feet gently touched the green rug beneath his hammock, barley making a sound. He took a second to stretch out his still dormant muscles, waiting for the pins and needles feeling to fade.

Whatever had caused him to wake, it hadn't come from his room. He would have to slip out and investigate. But before that…

Yuma tiptoed over to where Astral floated, being careful not to wake him. He would get a stiff neck sleeping standing up again. Yuma reached out and gently grabbed Astral's glowing blue hand slowly guiding him towards the hammock. Considering he was still floating, it would be easier to get him into the hammock than into the sleeping bag. They really needed to get him a real bed.

"C'mon, Astral," he whispered quietly, nudging him in front of the hammock.

It wasn't hard to get him to follow since he was still floating, and surprisingly, still weightless. There had been a couple of times when someone would try to nudge Astral awake and suddenly find him chained to the laws of gravity once again. Yuma wondered if this counted as sleepwalking… sleepfloating, whatever.

Yuma sighed as they stopped, Astral's head bobbing like a ragdoll's.

_Man, he must be really out of it_, Yuma thought, _normally he's an incredibly light sleeper_.

"Go on, get in," Yuma whispered again.

He gently touched the tips of each of Astral's feet, causing him to pull them up against his body. Now that he was curled up in fetal position in mid-air, Yuma worked quickly to shove him into the hammock. Once he was laying down Astral unfurled back into a ragdoll position, arms and legs splayed out haphazardly. Yuma to stop and wonder if Obaa-chan or Akari hadn't slipped something to him before bed to make sure that he actually slept instead of watching reruns all night.

The thought shattered when Astral curled into himself and shivered. Yuma chuckled quietly while grabbing one of the thicker blankets to toss over his friend. Astral calmed almost immediately after and fell back into a deeper sleep.

Now that Astral was taken care of, Yuma went back to investigating. Astral's breathing had quieted so Yuma strained his ears to listen for anything out of the ordinary. Soon he picked up very faint noises. It sounded like someone was in the basement.

The basement had more or less been his parents' laboratory. Since their disappearance all those years ago it had been shut down, locked up, and forgotten, Obaa-chan not wanting them anywhere near the dangerous equipment. However, since their parents return it had once again been put into use.

Yuma carefully slid out of the attic, shimmying down the rope into his actual bedroom. After landing quietly, he silently padded down the stairs, and wound his way through the house to the next set that lead to the basement. He was extra careful as he crept past Obomi, who was in stand-by mode in one of the corners. No need for her to alert everybody and wake them up.

Yuma shivered as he hit the first of the concrete steps, but his feet quickly got used to the cold. As he hit the bottom step, the sounds of someone typing and muttering to themselves under their breath was heard. Yuma padded down the narrow corridor and turned to see the heavy wooden door to his parents' lab left ajar, the shiny metal key still in the knob.

Whoever it was must have gotten fed up with whatever they were doing, because a loud "Argh!" was heard and it sounded like they kicked something heavy.

Yuma rubbed his eyes blearily at the introduction of the computer lights until a figure came into focus.

"Tou-chan?" he asked, "What are you still doing up?"

"Yuma!" Kazumo Tsukumo jolted, then turned around in his swivel chair to face his son, "I'm sorry, Yuma, did I wake you?"

"No. I heard noises so I went to go and investigate. Astral fell asleep sta- …er, floating up again." Yuma answered, not wanting to interrupt his father's work.

"I think the noises you heard were from me," Kazumo smiled warmly, "You must have amazing hearing to have heard it in the attic though."

Yuma chuckled sheepishly. While he was still a fairly deep sleeper, the amount of people coming in and out of his room without him knowing it and just the fact alone of surviving an interstellar war, had both sharpened his hearing and made him incredibly paranoid. Though he still trusted people openly ad tried to bond with everyone he met, he was still weary of people rummaging through his stuff while he was asleep, especially now that Astral wasn't awake all night to keep watch. And not just enemies or strangers either. (Thank you, Cathy.) Whether it was a friend needing a safe place to crash for the night, or someone stirring up some kind of duel related trouble, Yuma wanted to be well aware of it. Even if it meant jolting awake at out of the ordinary sounds.

"I'm sorry if I was being too loud," his father's voice brought him out of his reverie.

"Oh, no, it's no trouble, Tou-chan. I just wanted to know what was going on. I'm the only one awake." Yuma added the last sentence quickly as he saw the question forming on his father's lips.

Kazuma nodded and smiled.

"What are you doing anyways?" Yuma asked, suddenly remembering that his father staying up working this way was very out of the ordinary. Glancing at the clock on the corner of the computer screen, he realized that it was actually early morning.

"Ah. I'm researching Alternate Universes." He said, the thrill of scientific discovery bringing a twinkle back to his eyes.

"You mean like the Astral and Barian Worlds?" Yuma asked. His father motioned for him to pull up one of the other swivel chairs and sit down. He did.

"Uh… Well, no. Not exactly," he answered, trying to think of how best to explain it.

"I'm not just talking about alternate worlds in our own Universe, like the Astral and Barian Worlds, that we can reach through wormholes and space travel. I'm talking about Alternate Universes, carbon copies of this world in all ways except for a few. Worlds with minor little differences that change the whole dynamics of the world. Multiple Earths where just one little thing is different from the next. …Think the Butterfly Effect, but with Universes instead of Time Travel," Kazuma explained.

Yuma nodded. Despite what most people thought, he was not a complete idiot, and he had grown up hearing about things like the Butterfly Effect and Alternate Dimensions. Such crazy theories and things came to him as easily as breathing. However, that wasn't much help in things like school.

"You mean, like a Multiverse?" Yuma asked.

Kazuma gave a blank expression for only a split second before he answered, "No. I mean Alternate Universes. A Multiverse is multiple Earths or Universes that range from slightly different to radically different due to a slight change in a timeline."

"That's what you just said."

"No. A Multiverse has to do with just timeline differences. An Alternate Universe can be the result of timeline changes or other things."

"It still sounds like a Multiverse to me. …But I think I get what you're saying," Yuma said.

Kazuma nodded knowing that he didn't have to explain any further. That was Yuma-speak for 'I grasp the concept, but I'm not quite sure how to put it into words'. They really needed to work on building the boy's vocabulary. Astral had been good for that so far, but a few more lessons wouldn't hurt.

"So… In one of these 'Alternate Universe', I could be like a merman, or a girl, or an Astral Being, or something like that?" Yuma asked, interested, eyes alight with curiosity.

Kazuma nodded, turning towards the screen again and pulling up what he had been working on, "That's right. And there are many other possibilities that you couldn't even begin to imagine."

The screen now showed Yuma a rough idea of what those alternate worlds would look like.

"Coooool!" Yuma exclaimed, eyes sparkling, "I wonder if all of the 'other me's' have the Kattobingu Spirit too."

Kazuma chuckled lightly, "Yuma, no matter what universe you're in you will always have your Kattobingu Spirit."

"Yeah, Kattobingu!" Yuma exclaimed, before turning his attention back to the screen.

"I wonder what there all like," he breathed after a moment.

"Yeah," Kazuma agreed, "Wouldn't it be neat to find out?"

So sitting with his father on their own moonlit night, Yuma gazed at the moons of others worlds, wondering what they would be like, not realizing that they were closer than they seemed.

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><p>FrenchFryGirl: Alrighty then! So I'm back. And first things first, I apologize for my three year absence. A lot has been going on in my life for these past three years and I just haven't had the time to write at all. So for those of you reading my Legend Of Zelda stories, I'm sorry to say, but those have been discontinued. I will leave them up for anyone who enjoys reading what's already there, but I will not be adding anymore to them. For those of you who haven't read those, please disregard that. All you need to know is that I've been absent for about three years and I'm finally back, so I may be a bit rusty.<p>

As for this particular story; Here's how it works:

I used the few Japanese words that I do know that are used by the characters in the anime itself, because this is supposed to be the Canon Universe. I will not be doing this in later chapters. I will either use their English names, or drop the usage of honorifics. I also will leave words like Mom, Dad, and Grandma in English. The reason for this being that I don't really understand how Japanese honorifics work all that well, and I'd rather just not use them than use them and sound like an idiot. I'm sorry if this confuses or upsets anyone.

This is meant to be my catch-all for the AUs that I come up with for this fandom. I will post one chapter for each AU, probably the beginning of the story for that AU. The next chapter will switch to another AU. I will only continue with an AU if I get enough requests for it.

That said, if anyone wants to take an AU as the first chapter of a story and run with it, then by all means, _do it_. So long as you don't claim it as your own or copy/paste the first chapter you don't even have to ask. These almost double up as prompts to get people writing more for this fandom, because there aren't nearly enough fics in the Zexal section. I'll try to take care of the world building part at the start of each chapter.

_That_ said, if you have any prompts, suggestions, or AUs you want to see, by all means, _send them to me_. I need ideas! So long as it's not just a one word prompt (I see enough of those already), then I'll see what I can do. Some rules for that, however:

Only ask _**once! **_I cannot stress this enough. Hopefully, I won't disappear for as long of a period as last time, but I'm still in school. If I don't have time for it, then I just don't have time for it. Nothing against anyone personally.

I can do pairings. _However_, the most you will end up getting is fluffy tender moments that could probably be taken for strong friendship. I see most of the "pairings" as a brotherly kind of thing anyways (like that tender moment between Yuma and Astral above). Also, while I'm still too young to know for sure, I'm beginning to highly suspect that I am asexual. You'll be lucky if you can get me to write anyone _kissing_ romantically. (And yes, you can be kissed platonically. Half of my family is from Europe so I'm kind of used to it. I'm lucky if I can even get my American friends to _hug_ me without looking at me weird.) So if you want anything further than holding ands and cuddling, you'll have to go somewhere else.

Also, I am uncomfortable doing anything with too many religious overtones. Please just keep that in mind.

**Do not ask for crossovers**. This is not in the crossover section for a reason. This includes anything Disney. A mermaid AU will not follow the plotline of The Little Mermaid.

**Do not** ask for anything that could have possibly happened in Canon. Including Future Fics and What-ifs? This is for Alternate _Universes_, not Alternate _Timelines_. (Though I may do that later if I get enough requests for it.)

I can't think of any more rules. If I do or something comes up, I'll add it to here. Feel free to be as specific or as vague as you want with your suggestions (so long as it's more than one word).

Just one final forewarning. I like to write. Like, a lot. If you are not into heavy reading, turn back now. These are meant for world building, so each chapter could be well over 5,000 words. Most of the stories I see for this fandom are between 1,000-2,000 words, so I decided to do this for the heavy readers like me.

I think I'll stop there for now. I already have the first chapter typed up, and I am putting the final touches on revising it. I also already have several more already planned out, so it may be some time before I can get any request done anyways.

That's all for now.

-FFG (FrenchFryGirl)


	2. Chapter 1 - Merpeople AU

**Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal AUs **

**Chapter 1: Merpeople AU **

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><p><span><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal.

See bottom for notes.

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><p>Yuma was excited. Beyond excited! He had spotted it again today! And that was all he talked about as he walked with his friends Bronk and Kotori (Tori for short) to their school, Heartland Bay Academy.<p>

"I'm telling you, I saw it again. I got this close to it this time!" Yuma exclaimed, motioning with his hands for emphasis.

"Yuma…" Tori began, but Yuma had already turned back to their route, still animatedly chatting away.

Tori and Bronk shared a look behind his back. Same old Yuma. They just wished he'd let them get a word in edgewise.

"And it's tail! Its tail was like this huge!" Yuma exclaimed, finally turning around again to face his friends, throwing his arms out for emphasis.

Tori sighed. "_Yuma_…" she said a bit more forcefully.

Yuma finally calmed down enough to actually look at their expressions.

"Eh? What's wrong?" Yuma blinked as his own expression fell slightly.

"Yuma, you get like this every time you go down to that bay. You always see this… whatever this thing is, only for it to disappear moments later…" She trailed off.

It was no secret that there were multiple rumors and myths about there being mermaids and other aquatic fantasy creature in Heartland Bay. It was a joke among the locals that they had their own Loch Ness. But that's all they were – rumors, myths, and a tourist attraction. Though there were some people who avidly believed otherwise. Yuma being one of those people.

She looked like she was about to say something more, but Yuma cut her off.

"'Whatever this thing is'…? You don't believe me, do you?" Yuma pouted.

"Er… Well…" Bronk started, but Tori interrupted him.

"It's not that you don't believe that you saw _something_, Yuma."

"It's just that…" Bronk added.

"Well…" Tori stalled.

"…A mermaid?" They said together.

"Or a merman!" Yuma pointed out, "We don't know that yet!"

"Yuma…" They both said at the same time again, exasperated that their friend was once again completely missing the point.

"Are you sure it's not a whale, or a dolphin, or something?" Tori asked.

"This close to the shore?!" Yuma exclaimed, "My parents would never let one endanger itself by coming this close!"

Yuma's parents were Marine Biologists… or so they claimed. Much of the work they did was for the government, so they were very hush-hush about their job, even with their kids. Akari had said multiple times that she thought that they were just doing some kind of water quality testing, or maybe cataloguing endangered species that they didn't want the general public to know about just quite yet. Yuma liked to believe that they were searching for merpeople. After all, once they were discovered they would be considered an endangered species, right?

Bronk remained silent. While he agreed with Yuma that a whale or a dolphin wouldn't be this close to shore, he doubted that Yuma's parents had anything to do with it. A dolphin or whale would have either beached itself or swam back out by now. And people would have noticed. However, Yuma liked to believe that his parents were the guardians of all sea life, never mind that they were miles away from the bay out at sea.

"Yuma, you know that's not what I meant," Tori started again, but Bronk stepped in to stop the impending argument.

"Are you sure it's not like a shark or something?" he asked.

"This close to people?" Yuma blinked, struck out of the argument.

"No way," Tori added before Yuma had finished, "People would have noticed."

"Not necessarily," Bronk said, "I mean, it's not like all sharks are man-eating monsters like on TV," he waggled his fingers like claws for emphasis; "Most of them are pretty shy around humans, aren't they? It might just be feeding off of this fish by the coral reefs here."

Yuma nodded in confirmation about sharks being shy around humans, but he didn't look too convinced. While there were plenty of fish for one to feed on in the coral reefs, Yuma didn't think that it would go after unusual prey, unless there was nothing left out in the ocean for it. And Tori was right, just like Bronk was right about her idea, people would have noticed. A beached or trapped whale would have caught the attention of the locals, tourists, media, or some combination of all three right away. And while the locals _might_ ignore a shark in the bay, the tourists certainly wouldn't. It would only be a matter of time before someone snorkeling in the ocean's crystal clear waters would come out yelling and screaming about man-eating sharks. No, both explanations were implausible. Which left only one explanation… (Even if his friends said that it was the most implausible explanation of them all.)

They were all about to argue further when Tori looked up and noticed that they had arrived at their school.

"Why don't we save the rest of this conversation for after school?" she asked, bringing their attention to the fact that they had arrived at the school building, "Yuma, aren't you going to use your _kattobingu_ to win the swimming race today?" She tried to change the subject before they got to class, using the catchphrase that Yuma's parents taught him to redirect his attention.

"Yeah! _Kattobingu_!" he cried, gripping the key his parents had given him as a souvenir of one of their adventures, before rocketing off ahead of them to class.

Unfortunately, they did not get to continue their conversation after school. Bronk had to go home right away and Tori had a test to make up. So Yuma walked home alone.

He walked along the usual ocean path staring out at the sea. The morning's argument bubbled up in his mind, but he quickly quashed it down. He was in too good of a mood to worry about such things. Figuring that he had some time still before Akari expected him home, since he was walking faster without anyone to talk with; he decided to take a slight detour. Yuma trotted along to the beach, and once he got there he removed his socks and shoes and stuffed them into his backpack, preferring to feel the sand beneath his toes instead. True, it was a bit cold for this, but Yuma didn't mind – he was used to it.

Yuma walked just far enough up shore so that the sand was still dry even with the tide coming in. He padded along, enjoying the feeling of the still hot sand under his feet, even as the temperature dropped as the sky began to darken. A few seagulls still swirled lazily overhead, cawing to each other. Yuma answered with a few calls of his own.

Ruby russet eyes traced the flight path of a lone seagull that was just rejoining its flock. A huge group of them still circled in one area.

_That's odd_, Yuma thought, _Normally there aren't that many still out here, at least not at this time of day._

Usually they only came out in big groups like this when there were a bunch of people to feed them food, but the beach was deserted today. They were circling some kind of rocky outcropping.

Yuma starred out at the water, hoping to catch sight of whatever had sent them into such a frenzy. Yuma gasped at what he saw. A few yards out from the outcropping he saw a long, gray fish tail slowly diving under, slapping the water as it went. It almost looked like a dolphin tail, but its flukes were facing the wrong way, like a sharks'. But no shark would dive like that.

It was too far away to make out any real details, but Yuma could have sworn he saw the top of a human head and eyes peeking out just above the water before dipping back under.

Yuma broke out in a grin and made a chocked noise of happiness, trying to quiet himself so as not to alert the creature (the sound would echo here).

He cautiously stepped backwards a bit, before breaking out in a run towards home. He needed to grab his camera!

In his haste, he did not notice the ominous dark pink tinge the water took.

Yuma burst through the door calling out an "I'm home!" before bolting towards his room.

"There's a snack in the fridge for you, Yuma," Akari said over her shoulder as room practically ran through the room.

"Hi, Akari!" he said in a rush.

"Where's Granma?" he asked halfway up the stairs, realizing that she had not come to greet him yet.

"She went out with Granma Meadows to that one restaurant, remember? She won't be back until late she said," Akari told him.

"Okay, I'm going down to the beach, alright?"

"Well… Okay, but be back before it gets dark out, alright?"

She must have noticed his incredulous expression because she added, "I just need you out of my hair for a few hours while I finish getting my scoop. Don't think that this is going to become a regular thing."

Yuma grinned, "Alright, thanks Sis!"

He dashed upstairs to his room and dropped his backpack unceremoniously by his bed. He then kicked his brown school shoes off and left them by their usual spot as well.

Then he climbed his 'monkey rope' up to the attic where he usually slept. All of his parents' mementos from their trips out to sea were stored up there and it made him feel closer to them when they were away.

Careful not to knock anything over, Yuma grabbed his everyday clothes and quickly located his underwater camera.

He quickly stripped off his school uniform and bundled it into a small pile to be washed later, then just as quickly threw on his other outfit (the one Granma would make much less of a fuss over if it got dirty).

He now had on a blue shirt with a green D in the middle of it (D for Deepsea), white pants with orange and yellow flames traveling up the sides, and a red hooded jacket. He slid a brown belt through his pants, which had his key ring attached to it in case he needed to get back into the house.

Last, but not least, he threw the Emperor's Key back around his neck. He called it that because his parents had told him that it belonged to one of the last great emperors of Atlantis. All of their co-workers had called it the Captain's Key, but Yuma liked Emperor's Key better. It just sounded… right. Almost like it was fated to be called that.

With everything now in place, Yuma grabbed his other shoes and put his camera into his adventure bag. (Technically, it was a second backpack, but adventure bag sounded cooler.)

He slid back down the rope, and then hastily threw on his blue and black running shoes, making sure they were nice and tight.

He shifted uncomfortably before he ran back down the stairs, because he had thrown on his swimming trunks underneath his pants. It wasn't very comfortable, but at least this way if he needed to go out in the water, he could just strip the rest of his clothes off and not have to worry about being soaked all the way through.

"Alright, I'm going! Bye Sis, love ya!" Yuma called as he bolted back towards the front of the house.

"Bye, Yuma, love you too," she called as he left, "Remember your snack's in the fridge!" she added.

Yuma stuck his after-school snack in his adventure bag as well and then took off.

As he leapt off the last step he couldn't help but shouting "_Kattobingu_!"

Yuma bounded back towards the beach, running full tilt even after he hit the sand. He did not slow down until he was more than halfway down the beach.

He was now only a little ways from where he was before. He grinned and allowed a small chuckle to escape his lips.

He quickly took off his socks and shoes and tossed them into his adventure bag. They were better equipped to handle the sand than his school shoes, but he still preferred to run barefoot. Besides, no use getting his good shoes all sandy, right?

The water was coming up even lower on the beach than before and the sun was beginning to set, painting both the sky and the sea a brilliant pink and orange.

It was breathtaking to see, and Yuma was glad that he got to see it even as he ran down the beach, the wind blowing his pink bangs back into the rest of his black hair. He took deep breaths of the salty air. Truth be told, he was starting to get tired from all of the running, but his excitement pushed him on. It was a good thing he was such a good runner.

Eventually he saw the seagulls from before. He figured they were feeding off of whatever fish the mer-creature was stirring up.

An actual laugh escaped his lips this time as he got ready to bolt forward, but he quickly stopped when he felt something squelch beneath his feet.

Glancing down quickly he realized that he must have gotten closer to the water than he had originally thought. But as he stared out at the water he realized that something was wrong. The water had seemed… off somehow and Yuma's eyes widened as he realized why.

The water was tinged a dark red color, darker than would be caused by the beautiful sunset. As he looked back down at his feet he let a gasp escape his lips. Pooled around his feet was a bright red liquid that clearly wasn't sea water.

Blood. It had to be. He looked back up at the seagulls. Now that he thought about it, seagulls circled when they smelled fish, right? If this creature smelled like the fish it resembled, would it be that far of a stretch to say that they were circling the creature because it was injured?

Yuma set off again, faster than before, this time spurred on by worry and concern rather than excitement and happiness.

He finally hit the rocky outcropping. This was one of his favorite places to play as a kid. The seagulls were circling thickly here. He looked around scanning for any tell-tale signs of red or anything else out of the ordinary. Once the tide went out it left behind many little tide pools with little crabs, small fishes, and miniature coral reefs. He quickly climbed over them to get a better view. Once he got his bearings he headed in the direction that he saw many of the seagulls landing.

Yuma stopped just outside the place that the seagulls had gathered. He remembered this place. This was one of his favorite tide pools as a kid. It was one of the biggest around, and had a circle of rocks that jutted up above the water, even when it was high tide. However, once he had stayed in there as all the water left, too enraptured with the miniature world slowly being exposed to him to notice the tide going out. Eventually he realized that he was stuck. The cracks that he swam in from above did not extend all the way down to the bottom, and the rocks were too slippery to climb up. He had found himself encased in a wall of rock and had to call for his dad to come and get him out.

By now Yuma had learned how to find footholds in even the slipperiest of rocks, but if this creature didn't have feet to begin with…

And not to mention it was injured on top of it.

Yuma's sharp eyes had picked out a small trail of blood steadily flowing out from one of the cracks.

He could have approached it from the top, but he didn't want to startle the creature, especially if it was injured. If there was one thing that his parents had drilled into him, it was that you never wanted to startle an injured animal. And while this creature may have human intelligence (he didn't know that yet, but he had a feeling,) he was pretty sure that the same rule still applied. And if it was now trapped and cornered besides…

No, he definitely wasn't coming in from above.

Yuma walked around to the side of the crack where he saw the blood trailing out. The cracks there were wide enough to see through, but not enough to let anything in or out.

His feet found a small rock to stand on just beneath the water as he peeked in.

Yuma gasped.

Sitting just a few feet away with its back against the rocks, was a merman. Or merboy, in this case.

From the waist up he looked human. He had pale skin, and the build of a swimmer. His dark blue, almost violet, hair hung down in thick strands, three on each side, slightly resembling tentacles. His lighter, icy blue bangs were curled upwards in a W shape. He had his head down so it was hard to see his eyes from where he stood. From the waist down he had all the makings of a shark. A long gray and white tail swept underneath him, though it was curled around slightly in a way that was reminiscent of a child hugging their legs to their chest. There seemed to be gills on the side of it, but it was too hard to count them right now.

And, much to Yuma's horror, there was the end of a hooked harpoon speared all the way through, just above his vertical tail fin.

There were multiple other minor scratches and marks all over his body, but the majority of the blood trickling out seemed to be coming from that.

The creature must have heard him gasp, because in an instant his head shot up and swiveled around wildly, looking for any sign of danger.

"Who's there?" he called out, though his voice quavered a little at the end, like he was trying to repress fear.

Yuma ducked down slightly, enough that he could still see, but not so much as to have his wild hair be seen over the edge.

"I know your there!" he called again, his voice steadier this time, but something still sounded… off, "Show yourself!"

Yuma stayed still and tried to quiet his breathing. He didn't dare make a sound.

After a few tense moments the mer-creature sighed and slumped back against the rocks.

"Great, now I'm hearing things," Yuma thought he heard him mumble.

Yuma silently let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding.

Yuma quietly stepped off of the rock and padded silently back on to the sand. He thought he saw a place where he could just squeeze in on the other side. It was better than trying to drop in from above. He didn't know what all he could do for the creature, but he would try as hard as he could.

The seagulls scattered as he went, careful to at least keep himself out of sight. There wasn't much that he could do about the birds.

Sure enough, there was a tiny opening just big enough for him to squeeze through if he positioned himself and his adventure bag just right. However, Yuma hesitated. While he might not be the brightest bulb in the box school-wise, as many of his classmates frequently reminded him, he had come from a family of adventurers, and nobody could say that Yuma didn't have good survival instincts. And right now they were going crazy.

He didn't know how the merboy would react to him, or how strong he was, even in his weakened state. For all he knew, he could be trapping himself with a hostile creature that might still be able to severely injure him out of panic. And that would only harm the merboy worse, tearing open the already bleeding wounds even worse.

Maybe if he called out to him first…

It was a long shot, but it was all he had at this point. It wasn't like he could run home and back again now, the merboy might bleed out in that time. Maybe he could tear some strips of his clothing. He wished that he had thought to but a roll of gauze and some disinfectant in his adventure bag, it would be useful even if it wasn't for situations like this.

Yuma took a deep steadying breath. "Hello?" he called out.

The merboy's head snapped back up, an alarmed _I knew it!_ expression on his face.

"Alright, who's there!" he called out again, this time with real venom in his voice, "Come to finish me off, you monsters? Well? Show yourself, you cowards!"

His voice echoed slightly off of the circle of rocks, and Yuma couldn't help but feeling once again that something was off about the merboy's voice, but he quickly dismissed it.

"What are you talking about?" he muttered to himself as he hauled himself up onto the rocks.

"Hello?-Woah!" Yuma started to call out again when he slipped and landed in the middle of the ring. Luckily he landed on mostly sand and softer coral sponges to break his fall, but there was still enough water to get his clothes slightly wet.

The merboy untensed only for a fraction of a second, mostly from confusion and shock, before his guard went right back up again.

"You're not one of them. Who are you?" he demanded.

Yuma picked himself up and tried to answer him, but he was in shock from seeing the merboy up close for the first time. Sharp, piercing eyes as blue as the deep ocean were staring him down, despite the obvious pain behind them. The merboy didn't look any older than he was!

Yuma babbled incoherently, half from collecting his thoughts after falling down, and half in shock from seeing the merboy he had chased since his early childhood right in from of him.

The merboy was quickly getting fed up with this.

"Enun-shhe-ate." He said.

Oh. So that was why his voice had sounded so off before. Yuma hadn't been able to see it from so far away, but now that he was up close he saw that the merboy had a mouth full of, not human, but shark teeth! They gave him a lisp. The irony of the merboy telling _him_ to enunciate was the last straw for Yuma.

He burst out laughing somewhere between chuckles and giggles. The merboy did not look amused.

By time Yuma finally gotten his mouth to work again, he said the first thing that came to mind, "You've got shark teeth!" he said between laughs.

The merboy gave him a _No duh, Sherlock_, look. He decided not to even dignify that with a response.

So instead he decided to use his tail fin to splash the sandy, salty water right in Yuma's face.

However, he paid for it in a strong wince that did not go unnoticed by Yuma.

Brining himself back to the situation, Yuma was about to answer and ask questions, but the merboy was quicker on the draw.

"Answer the question," he demanded, though a slight tremor only noticeable by the ripples in the water betrayed that he was trying to cover up fear with aggression.

"Yuma. My name's Yuma," he said, "What's your name?"

"Like I'd tell you."

The lisp had come back in full force after he'd lost some of his aggression ('likche'), but Yuma started to wonder if something else wasn't wrong.

Yuma was disappointed that he didn't get the merboy's name, but the increasing amount of red pooling at his feet brought his attention back to more serious matters.

But before he could speak, the merboy had once again spoken before him.

"What do you want?" he demanded, but this time was unable to keep the wheeze off of the end of the sentence.

"You're hurt," Yuma pointed out, motioning to the hooked harpoon in the merboy's tail that was still slowly dying the water red with blood.

"So?" he snapped, giving Yuma a glare for pointing out the obvious, but unable to keep his lisp from interfering. ('Sho?')

"Let me help you," Yuma said, moving forward only to be slapped back by a much stronger wave of saltwater from the merboy's tailfin.

"No way. You're either going to bring me to some mad scientist and let them dissect me, or you're going to take a bunch of pictures of me that'll either attract a mad scientist or somebody who wants me for a freakshow," the lisp seemed to be getting worse, instead of better like when he was demanding, with a hiss on 'either' and on every 's' sound.

Yuma drew back and felt a flash of guilt go through him as he remembered the underwater camera in his adventure bag. While he hadn't intended to show anyone besides his friends, he hadn't thought about what the consequences of that might be. And the merboy seemed pretty opposed to the idea of having his picture taken anyways.

"I won't take any pictures of you if you don't want me to," Yuma said as he reached for him again, "But at least let me–"

"Don't touch me!" the merboy snapped, this time slapping Yuma's hand away with the end of his tail fin.

Yuma drew his hand back before he finally noticed what else was wrong with the merboy's voice.

He had helped enough asthmatic kids in his gym class to know the difference between an out-of-breath wheeze and an I-literally-cannot-get-air-into-my-lungs wheeze. Yuma watched the gills on his neck that he had failed notice before flare as the merboy made a very faint gasping noise.

"Hey, you can't breathe," Yuma was about to reach out again, but held himself back this time.

"No, _really_? I hadn't noticed. Maybe that's because there's barely any water here, Captain Obvious," he splashed his tail once for emphasis, "But hey, at least I'll probably die from lack of oxygen before I die from starvation or blood loss!" he spat sarcastically, wheezing in full force now.

But Yuma had actually brightened, because the merboy had listed a problem that he could actually solve. He may not have any bandages or a way to get water to him, but he did still have food in his adventure bag.

The merboy gave him a confused look as he started digging around in his adventure bag for it.

"Here," he said, holding out an unwrapped rice ball with sweet filling in the middle.

The merboy looked hopelessly confused for a second before his expression morphed into suspicion, "What's in it?" he asked.

"Rice and sweet filling. You'll love it, trust me. Granma's a good cook," Yuma smiled at him, keeping his hand extended.

"That's it?" the merboy asked cautiously.

"Yeah. Why?" Yuma asked, wondering if the merboy maybe couldn't have human food.

"I've done nothing but snap at you this whole time, and you're sharing your food with me," the merboy deadpanned, looking at Yuma like he was the biggest idiot in the world.

"Sure! You need it more than I do right now, right?" Yuma's smile didn't drop; it only became more warm as if he was talking to one of his friends.

"You're weird," the merboy said bluntly, before finally giving into hunger and snatching the rice ball from Yuma.

Yuma drew back slightly to give him some space. He sniffed it suspiciously, before deciding that even if it was poisoned or spiked with something, he was going to die here anyways. He took a cautious bite.

"Mmm…"

Yuma's smile widened and the corners of the merboy's lips crept upwards. It wasn't long before he was devouring the rice ball, savoring every last bit. There was nothing really sweet to eat in the ocean, so it was rare that he got anything that sweet.

The merboy met Yuma's eyes before looking down quickly.

"It's good…" he mumbled.

Yuma reached into his adventure bag and pulled out his last one.

"If I give you another one, will you tell me your name?" Yuma asked, holding it out.

The merboy stiffened and narrowed his eyes at him.

"I'll still give it to you anyways," Yuma hastily added, extending his arm, "I was just hoping… you know…"

The merboy took the rice ball, much more gently this time, and seemed to think it over. He took a slow thoughtful bite, and swallowed before answering…

"Shark."

"Huh?" Yuma looked up.

"Shark," he repeated, though with his lisp it sounded more like 'Shaaku'.

"Shark," Yuma mumbled to himself, before he met the merboy's eyes again.

"That's not your real name!" Yuma said.

The merboy's carefully concealed expression cracked, and he split into a full grin, eyes shining with mirth.

"No, but that's what you can call me," he said, this time without any malice.

Shark quickly finished the rice ball, licking his fingers again when he was finished.

He met Yuma's smile with one of his own, before quickly looking away.

"Thanks…" he muttered, but it was so quiet that he wasn't sure if Yuma heard him or not.

He brought his attention back to his still bleeding tail. The bleeding had slowed down significantly, but it still hadn't stopped. And the harpoon was still in it. He splashed it weakly once, when he noticed Yuma bring his eyes back to it as well.

Yuma's smile quickly turned into a small frown.

"I don't know how to help you with that," he said, "I don't have anything to stop the bleeding with."

"It needs to come out first," Shark said.

"Yeah, but you'll still bleed out," Yuma pointed out.

"No I won't," Shark said, shaking his head.

Yuma gave him a questioning look.

"Just pull it out," he said, "I can heal the rest."

"You can? Really? Cool! Do you have like some kind of special healing power or something like that?" Yuma asked, childish excitement coming back.

"Something like that," Shark replied, a slight smirk on his face.

Yuma left his adventure bag where it wouldn't get wet and slowly crept forward. Shark allowed him and controlled his flinch, but kept his eyes trained on him the whole time.

Yuma had rolled up his pant legs and was now standing right beside the harpoon.

"Okay… How do I do this?" Yuma mumbled mostly to himself, but Shark answered him anyways.

"Just break it in half and pull out the separate pieces. Use your foot for leverage if you have to. Just be careful if you do that, or otherwise you'll end up ripping my tail."

"O-okay," Yuma said, first attempting to snap it with his hands, but it didn't do any good. The wood was too thick.

Shark winced in pain, and his wheezing had started up again, but other than that he remained silent.

"It's no good, I'm going to have to use my foot," Yuma said after several failed attempts.

"Okay," shark choked out.

Yuma put his hands on one end and put his foot on the other. Shark's tail, which had been buried in the sand to give Yuma more leverage, had started twitching. Yuma used his other foot to hold down Shark's tail. He gave Shark an apologetic look, but Shark nodded his consent. There was no other way to keep his tail down otherwise.

Yuma positioned himself so that he could break the wood with one clean blow. Then he brought he foot down. Hard.

As he had hoped the wood had snapped clean in two. Shark sucked in a deep breath and had turned slightly into it, but was otherwise no worse for the wear. Yuma tossed the chunk away.

Now came the hard part. Yuma walked around to his other side and gently took hold of the metal hooked part.

"You ready?" he asked, looking back at Shark.

Shark nodded and gave him a look that said '_Do it fast_.'

Yuma tugged hard. He was surprised at how slowly but easily it came out. There was the sickening sound of a solid object moving through flesh, with a sickening pop at the end. They both shuddered. Shark's tail had been thrashing wildly the whole time. Shark had cried out in pain a few times, because he couldn't fully bite down on his lip with his teeth. His bottom lip was still bleeding slightly regardless.

"You okay?" Yuma asked him.

"Yeah," Shark said breathlessly, "Move your hands," he swatted at where Yuma's hands still hovered.

Yuma did as he was told and moved his hands away as Shark placed him palms over both sides of the wound. His hands began to glow a soft green as the wound began to knit itself back together. Yuma was caught between gasping in awe of the healing power and shuddering at the noises of flesh knitting itself back together.

The wound had mostly closed, but eventually the glowing dimmed and Shark had to stop.

It was still bleeding, but sluggishly now.

"It's still bleeding," Yuma said, pointing out the obvious once again.

"Yeah, I don't have enough energy to stop it up completely," he said, breathing starting to even out.

"But you won't bleed out anymore, right?"

"If I can find something to stop it up with," Shark replied, looking around for maybe some seaweed or something else that he could use as bandages.

Yuma quickly took off his jacket and pressed it to the side where the hook was. Shark went rigid, but didn't protest.

"You're going to ruin that," he told Yuma.

"It's red anyways," he said, letting Shark take it and press it against the wound.

They were silent for a moment before Shark piped up again.

"It's pointless anyways," he said.

"Huh?"

"It's pointless. Regardless of whether or not I can stop up the bleeding, which I doubt I can completely anyways, I still can't get out of here. Even if I can stop the bleeding, if I try to climb those rocks, it'll just tear open again without proper bandaging. And if I just lay here I'll either dehydrate or run out of oxygen before the tide comes back in," he explained, calm on the surface, but with traces of fear starting to show through.

Yuma looked stricken at his newfound friend (he considered him one, even if the merboy didn't consider _him_ one yet) speaking like that, before shaking it off and thinking hard. While he was thinking, he had licked his lips and tried to get words of encouragement past them, but they all died on his tongue before he could voice them. And then finally…

"I've got it!"

"Hmm?" Shark looked up at Yuma's outburst, startled out of his own morbid thoughts by the boy's cheerful tone.

"We've got waterproof bandages at home, and some disinfectant," Yuma said, adding the last bit when he remembered the possibility of infection, "I swim a lot, so that's what my parents bandage me with when I get hurt."

Yuma had begun digging through his adventure bag, pulling out his shoes, then throwing them on and strapping them tight. His feet were too sandy to even bother with the socks.

"That… might work…" Shark said slowly, as Yuma had opened his mouth to speak again. This time, however, Yuma waited for him to finish speaking before cutting in.

"Will you still be here when I get back?" Yuma asked, preparing to leave.

Shark gave him a glare before voicing exactly what the look on his face said, "Like I have a choice," he reminded him with an angry splash of his tail.

"Right, sorry. I'll be ba-"

"Can you even make it before the tide goes out?" Shark asked, cutting Yuma off again to stop him from leaving.

"If I sprint," Yuma answered. At Shark's worried look he added, "Don't worry I'm a fast runner."

"…Alright. But hurry back," Shark said after a moment of hesitation, watching Yuma disappear over the rocks again, "And bring a bucket! I'm going to need some water!" he hollered after Yuma as he disappeared completely.

Yuma didn't answer him, so he had no way of knowing whether he had heard him or not. As he turned his attention back to his tail, he realized that Yuma had forgotten his jacket. And his adventure bag…

The only problem was Yuma wasn't even sure if he _could_ sprint. Running back and forth across the beach, running home and then running all the way back, not to mention this mornings' swim race at school had left Yuma exhausted. Not to mention that he had also climbed those slippery rocks and lugged his adventure bag, and before that, his backpack, the whole way. He wasn't even sure if he could _run_, much less _sprint_. Yuma was at his physical limits.

He was able to keep up a run until the very edge of the beach, before he was forced to walk. There had to be an easier, faster way home. He only had to think for a second before it came to him.

"Bronk," he breathed, remembering his best friend's favorite form of transportation.

The new hope gave him the strength he needed to set off in a run again, keeping to at least a jog as he set off towards his best friend's house.

Yuma reached Bronk's house fairly quickly. He used his left over adrenaline to jump the fence, just barely keeping from collapsing to his knees after using them to absorb the shock. He saw the shed where Bronk kept his airboard and started towards it, before looking up towards the second story of the house. He could just see the silhouettes of Bronk's older sister, Brianna, and his mother, Tetsumi (or Mrs. Stone, as he and Akari knew her), below moving about the house. Bronk's silhouette was in his room above near the window, probably working on his homework so that he wouldn't have to worry about it over their slight break.

"Bronk! Bronk!" he called out, jumping as much as he could (which wasn't much) and waving his arms around hoping to get his attention.

At first Yuma had intended to just take the airboard and explain to Bronk that it was an emergency later, but if any of the other Stones had caught him in the act, or even Bronk, he would be forced to stop and explain what he was doing, losing valuable time. Plus, he wasn't quite sure that anyone besides Bronk would believe him. Heck, he wasn't even sure that Bronk would believe him.

Much to his relief, Bronk tore the curtain aside, blinked once, then quickly unlocked and opened the window.

"Yuma?" He called out, "What are you doing here?"

Yuma let out a sigh of relief, "Bronk! I need to borrow your airboard! It's an emergency!" He shouted up to him quickly, hoping that his best friend wouldn't question him too much.

Bronk must have been able to see the worry on his face even at a distance, because he shouted back, "Yeah, sure! The shed's unlocked!"

"Thank you!" Yuma called back in relief, "I'll explain later. Does it have air?"

"Yeah, it should be good. I'd tell you not to get a scratch on it, but knowing you… Just don't crash it, okay?" Bonk called back.

"I won't!" Yuma said, though he could make no promises.

The shed wasn't completely unlocked, but one well-placed kick knocked the metal chain off of its rusty hinges, without breaking the chain. That was what he was hoping for. He knew that Bronk had to keep the airboard under lock and key, because the experimental technology was well coveted, and very expensive.

Yuma took the board and rushed back out on to the streets, carefully setting it up once he hit the road and then taking off in the direction of his home, much faster than before.

Yuma made it to his house in record time. He took several shortcuts over fences that he would usually have to jump, but now he could just glide right over. Of course, the higher he went, the more air he used, but he wasn't too worried about that. He'd just have to hope that it would hold out until he was done with it, and Bronk would understand if he brought it back with an empty tank, right?

He stopped the airboard right by his front steps, stepping off of it and then kicking it up to carry it under his arm.

He climbed up the steps and dropped it right by the front door, where he hoped that no one would take it. He then quickly unlocked the door and dashed inside past his sister.

"Hi, Sis! I forgot something!" He said in a rush, bolting past her up to his room.

"What did you forget?" she asked before he could disappear completely up the stairs.

"Beach toys!" he said, which if he grabbed a bucket, wasn't exactly a lie. He just hoped she wouldn't question him before he left.

"Where's your jacket?" she asked, noticing that there was no red on her blur of a brother.

"I put it in my adventure bag!"

"Where's your backp- 'adventure bag'?" she rolled her eyes at the name.

"That's outside too! I left it on the porch. I'll get it on my way out!" he had just realized that he had left it with Shark. Oh, well.

Yuma turned just before his room to the only bathroom on that floor. It was small, but it was mostly used for treating the various injuries that he (and when she was younger, Akari) had gathered over the years. He reached in the cabinet beneath the sink and pulled out the brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide. He felt around the other bottles while peeking inside. No gauze. It must be in the closet cabinet. He reached up and grabbed a few cotton swabs and the scrub brush for the hydrogen peroxide.

Then he went to the closet cabinet and quickly found a few rolls of waterproof gauze and some safety pins. Then he dashed into his room to find a red plastic bucket with room for all of his items and then some. The little red shovel attached to the side clacked with every step he took as he raced back down the stairs.

"Going back out! Bye, Sis!" he called to her as he ran towards the door.

"You better be back before it gets dark! You hear me?! If you're not back by time Grandma gets home–" she shouted after him.

"I will be! Don't worry!" Yuma shouted back as he swept into the kitchen.

He opened the fridge and just as he had hoped there was another rice ball in there. He also grabbed two bottles of fresh water, just in case he couldn't get the bucket to Shark fast enough. Also, fresh water would be better for treating wounds than salt water, right?

Yuma quickly drained only about a quarter of the first water bottle, careful not to let it touch his lips, too exhausted from all of his running to not drink _something_.

Yuma threw both the bottles and the wrapped rice ball in the bucket and then set off again, picking up the airboard right where he left it. He only hoped that it would hold out until he got there.

The airboard held out until about the edge of the beach, at which point Yuma was forced to get off, because gliding over the beach would spray sand everywhere. So he tucked the airboard under his arm and trailed his way back to Shark.

He was about halfway up the rocks when he remembered that he should probably call out to him to let him know that he was there.

"Shark?" Yuma asked, peeking his head over the rocks as he maneuvered himself over. He had left the airboard wedged in between two rocks.

Shark looked up sharply, and appeared to be startled out of his thoughts, tensing before relaxing when he saw that it was just Yuma. He appeared to be clutching something tightly in his hands.

Yuma took his eyes off of him for a moment so that he could focus on dropping down and not falling all over himself like he did last time. He still barely kept from collapsing to his knees after using them to absorb the shock, but somehow he managed.

Surprisingly enough, nothing had spilled out of the bucket. The little shovel had clacked against the side again, but all of its contents remained neatly in place. It seemed that they were packed tightly enough not to move.

When he looked up again, he saw that even more of the water had gone out, leaving part of Shark's tail exposed. He lightly slapped it in the water once as if to emphasize this.

Spurred out of his thoughts Yuma brought the bucket closer and set it down on the dry sand just outside of the water's reach.

"Took you long enough," Shark said once Yuma had started pulling out what he needed. The lisp was the same, but the wheezing was definitely getting worse.

"Sorry. I wanted to make sure I had everything I needed," Yuma said, focusing on emptying the bucket of its contents.

He laid the gauze and the safety pins off to the side where they would stay dry. He pulled out the two water bottles and set them aside, before finally pulling out the hydrogen peroxide and setting it between them.

Shark eyed it suspiciously, but said nothing.

It was only after Yuma had twisted off the cap and reached for the scrub brush that he spoke up.

"What is that stuff?" he asked, wrinkling his nose at the sharp smell.

"It's disinfectant," Yuma answered, getting ready to daub it on to the scrub brush.

"This is saltwater, I don't need disinfectant," he stated, slapping the water with his tail again for emphasis.

"That thing was made out of metal and wood. Any time you get cut on metal or wood you need to disinfect it, or you could get really sick. And you got cut by _both_," Yuma said, remembering when one of his first few attempts at jumping fences had resulted in him cutting himself on the barbed wire, and landing himself in the hospital in need of a tetanus shot.

Shark glared at the substance for a few seconds more, before sighing and conceding with a "Fine."

Yuma upended the brown bottle to allow just enough of the substance to soak in to the white, wiry mesh of the scrub brush, before setting it down and recapping it so that he wouldn't accidently tip it over.

"It's not alcohol," Shark said, getting another strong whiff of the pungent smelling substance.

"No, it's hydrogen peroxide. It'll disinfect it besides cleaning it," Yuma said, bringing it closer. He decided not to ask how Shark new that humans sometimes used alcohol as a cleansing tool.

"What's the difference?" he asked.

"I don't know," Yuma said.

Then he turned to look Shark in the eye.

"This is going to sting," he said seriously, not bothering to sugar coat it and say 'a little bit'. He knew from experience how bad it stung at first. Thankfully, it was always almost immediately replaced with a cold, cleansing numb.

He barely had time to see Shark's nod out of the corner of his eye before turning back and pressing it to the wound, wanting to get it over with before Shark could pull away.

Shark let out a hiss that ended in a slight cry as the hydrogen peroxide did its work. The hiss coming from Shark's teeth seemed to oddly match the bubbling and fizzing of his blood.

"Okay, now the other side," Yuma said, shifting his position after the fizzing died down, signaling that the disinfectant had run its course.

Shark, however, still had his attention elsewhere.

"What's it doing?" he asked, not even bothering to mask his alarm this time.

"Cleaning it. When it stops fizzing you know it's done," Yuma answered, wanted to do the other side quickly before Shark decided to forget cleaning it altogether.

Shark stared at his wound, which was still bubbling slightly at the edges, even though the fizzing had stopped. He was only drawn out of his thoughts when Yuma had pressed the scrub brush to the other side of his wound, making him cry out again from the unexpected pain.

He glared at Yuma for not warning him, who just smiled back apologetically.

The disinfectant ran its course for a second time, but it went much smoother now that Shark knew what to expect.

"We should probably do the ones on your chest and arms, too. Just to be safe," Yuma said, pointing to the various other marks and scratches littered up and down Shark's body.

Shark nodded, but didn't say anything as Yuma put the scrub brush down by the bucket and reached for the cotton balls, figuring that they'd be gentler on the unscaled, human-like skin of his upper body.

"I'll do those," Shark said as Yuma started to unscrew the cap on the brown bottle again.

"Are you sure?" Yuma asked, Shark's reaction to the disinfectant still fresh in his mind.

"Yes," Shark hissed, unintentionally exaggerating his lisp. Apparently he didn't want Yuma to touch him any more than he had to.

"Okay…" Yuma said, getting ready to dip the cotton balls into the fluid for him, before remembering something important.

"Oh! Before I forget. I brought you something," Yuma said, reaching into the bucket and producing the rice ball that he had brought from home, "You should probably eat it before you get the disinfectant all over your hands."

Shark looked at him suspiciously, before his face morphed into a look of hopelessly confused, grateful shock. However, he resettled his expression so quickly that Yuma wasn't sure if he had imagined it or not. It was almost as if Shark didn't believe him.

Yuma handed it to him and he took it gently. He licked his lips and looked as if he wanted to say something, but couldn't quite spit it out. So instead, he decided to occupy his mouth with hungrily devouring the rice ball.

Shark licked his lips again when he was finished, and quickly saw Yuma's point when he went to go and lick his fingers as well. However, he accidently nicked himself on one of his sharply pointed teeth.

He let out a sigh as he looked at the spot of red on his finger, barely a scratch compared to his other wounds.

"Thish ish getting annoyin'," he said, lisp still in full force.

Before Yuma could ask what he was doing, he brought his hands up to his cheeks as they once again started to glow a very faint green. Yuma heard a few sickening pops and noises that sounded like bones being rearranged, before Shark took his hands away and shifted his jaw around slightly. As he ran his tongue over both his top and bottom teeth, Yuma realized that they were no longer shark's teeth, but _human_ teeth.

"There, much better," he said, voice now crystal clear aside from the still present slight wheeze.

Ironically, Yuma was the one gaping like a fish.

"What did you just do?" he asked, excited at learning about his new friend's powers, but still slightly disturbed by the sickening pops it gave off.

"I rearranged my teeth. It was getting annoying to talk like that," Shark said, as if this was the most normal thing in the world.

"Then why didn't you do that earlier?" Yuma asked, still in shock.

"Because one; I didn't have enough energy to and two; I just didn't feel like it," Shark said.

"Why didn't you just use that energy to heal yourself?" Yuma asked, calming down, but still confused.

Shark snorted and gave a slight eye roll as if this should have been the most obvious thing in the world, "It takes way less energy to do that than it does to heal myself. The shark teeth are really only for feeding anyways. It would be kind of hard to talk to anyone if we had to keep draining all of our energy right after we ate," he said, explaining once it seemed to click that Yuma wouldn't know this.

"Hmm," Yuma hummed, taking in this new information, glad that he was able to learn _something_ about his new friend.

Shark, however, quickly seemed to realize that he had given away too much and went silent.

"That's kind of cool, I guess," Yuma said, thinking it must be painful to have to constantly rearrange your teeth. However, once he noticed Shark's uneasy expression, he quickly dropped it.

"Are you ready for these?" he asked, holding out the cotton balls that he had dipped in hydrogen peroxide.

"Yeah," Shark said, nodding, untensing once Yuma had dropped the subject.

While Shark made quick work of cleansing his other wounds, Yuma worked on untangling the gauze and detaching the safety pins.

It was only when Shark cried out again that he looked up. Shark seemed to have forgotten that he could bit his lip now. He seemed to be struggling with a particularly deep wound on his arm.

"Here, let me do that one," Yuma said, reaching for the cotton ball before Shark could object.

Shark didn't look too happy about it, but allowed him none the less. Yuma quickly finished cleaning what seemed like the last of his wounds. However, when he pulled his hand away, he realized that there was something slippery and yellow on them, not just the hydrogen peroxide.

He rubbed his fingers together as his face morphed into a look of confusion before he reached back up towards the gills on Shark's neck where it seemed to have come from. Shark immediately froze, clearly not liking Yuma so close to what was obviously a sensitive area, but was too shocked to do anything. Yuma brushed his fingertips against the top of Shark's gills, just above the black cord of his necklace. …Was he wearing that before? That must have been what he was clutching in his hand earlier. When Yuma pulled his hand back there was more of the slick yellow substance on his fingers, starting to make them slightly shiny.

"This is oil," he murmured, mostly to himself.

He dipped his fingers into the shallow amount of water beneath him, watching it change to what looked like near invisible smoke in the water before floating to the surface, making lazy curl patterns on the top. As Yuma looked more closely at the water, he realized that the whole area around Shark's tail looked distorted, not just where he had touched.

As he peered through the distortion he saw that there were a row of gills on the side of Shark's tail as well, not just on his neck. He didn't see them earlier because the distortion of the water made them blend in with the rest of his tail.

"Were you caught in an oil spill or something?" Yuma asked, bringing his eyes back up to Shark's, adding the 'or something' when he realized it wasn't the black oil that was usually drilled out of the ocean.

In fact, it looked more like cooking oil.

"Or something," Shark answered testily as he came back to his senses, "Never touch those again. I already can barely breathe out of them with that stuff all over them."

"Sorry. I just wanted to know what it was," Yuma said, drawing his hands back, "You might want to use the scrub brush on that," he pointed out, more worried about whether or not this was harming his friend.

It had just occurred to him that this was probably the main reason why Shark couldn't breathe, because clearly he could breathe the air above water just fine.

Yuma scrapped at the sand by the water enough to let a small puddle through, before grabbing the scrub brush.

"I have to rinse it off first, and I don't wanted to waste any of the fresh water," Yuma explained when Shark looked confused as to why Yuma was draining his precious dwindling water source. Shark blinked at the mention of the fresh water bottles, seeming to have forgotten that Yuma had brought them.

Yuma quickly closed it off with more sand so as not to contaminate Shark's water supply further.

"What's the fresh water for? In case you haven't noticed, I can breathe saltwater just fine," Shark asked, lifting his tail just enough to make a noise, but not enough to splash any more water out.

"It was in case you were running out of water faster than I thought. Also, it's to clear away the hydrogen peroxide. The saltwater would only make it sting worse," Yuma said, wringing out the white, wiry ball of the rest of the hydrogen peroxide before handing it to Shark, certain he didn't want him touching him again.

While Shark tried to scrub the oil off of his gills, Yuma took the unopened water bottle and unscrewed the cap, carefully running the fresh water over the wounds from the harpoon, tilting the bottle just enough so that he wouldn't be directly touching him. The last of the bubbling quickly stopped as the water flushed out the rest of the disinfectant. Once about half of the bottle was gone, he handed it to Shark, who swapped him for the scrub brush now that he was done with it.

The combination of the scrub brush, fresh water, and whatever residual hydrogen peroxide was left must have done the trick, because the oil had come cleanly off all of his gills. Now it was pooled around him, dying the water a cloudy color.

While Shark was busy washing off the rest of the hydrogen peroxide, Yuma gathered up the gauze and the safety pins, as well as the other water bottle and prepared to get to work. He set the other water bottle where Shark could reach it.

"Did you drink out of that?" he asked, realizing that about a quarter of the water was already absent from the bottle.

"No. …Well, yes, but I didn't let it touch my lips," Yuma answered distractedly as he tried to figure out how to best bandage Shark's tail.

That answer seemed to satisfy Shark, because he quickly uncapped it and drained it with huge gulps.

Yuma realized that he was probably dehydrated and shouldn't drink so fast so that he didn't make himself sick, but he was too distracted to tell him.

Once he finished the water he shifted slightly, allowing Yuma better access to his tail. Yuma hummed in thanks and made quick work of tightly winding the gauze around his tail.

Once he was done Shark set his tail down gently, the waterproofing keeping out the toxic mix of blood, hydrogen peroxide, and oil.

"Why don't we do that one right away too?" Yuma asked, pointing to the long mark on his upper arm that he had trouble cleaning earlier.

Shark nodded his assent and Yuma wound the bandages carefully around his arm, being careful not to touch him any more than was necessary. Once he was done he carefully slid the last of the safety pins into place.

"There. The other ones are either too small or too shallow to worry about, and we don't have enough bandages anyways," Yuma said once he was done.

"Yeah," Shark nodded in agreement.

They sat in comfortable silence for a few moments, relaxing now that the bandages were finally in place.

"Yuma," Shark said, bringing him out of his thoughts by calling him by his name for the first time since they met. When Yuma looked up he saw that Shark's head was still bowed, his eyes trained on the bandages on his tail, on the spot where the harpoon wound would have been.

"Thank you," he continued, finally bringing his eyes up to meet Yuma's, his blue depths showing that he was sincere.

"You're welcome," Yuma said warmly, causing Shark to echo his genuine smile.

They sat like that for a moment more before shark spilt into a grin and broke the moment by sharply slapping his tail against what little water was left.

"Well?" he asked, "aren't you going to go and get me more water? Or are you just going to let me sit here in this filth?" he said, but his tone was light and teasing, so Yuma knew that he wasn't serious, "Well? Hop to it!" Apparently being friends now gave him the right to be bossy.

However, it was enough to snap Yuma back to reality.

"Oh, uh, right!"

Yuma quickly scrambled for the red bucket, now empty of its contents, and took it with him as he hoped back over the rocks down to the slowly receding seawater.

The only problem now was that Yuma wasn't even sure that he could _get_ the water to Shark. He was so exhausted that climbing the rocks with the empty bucket was challenge enough, much less if he had to drag it up full of water. Most people may not realize or think about it, but water was _heavy_. Not to mention the fact that the bucket had no lid, meaning he would have a hard time keeping it upright when he climbed back over the rocks.

He'd have to think of a plan while he brought the water back to Shark. Once he hit the ice cold water he was immediately splashed with a wave, soaking him through his pants even though he had them rolled up. He was suddenly glad that he decided to wear his swim trunks underneath.

Once he got the water to Shark, barely managing to keep from spilling any, it quickly washed away most of the filth. However, that also meant that it was quickly draining.

Before he made his return trip, Yuma quickly stuffed whatever he was no longer using into his adventure bag, discarded, now bloody jacket included, before quickly dropping it off by where he left the airboard.

"It was in the way," he said in response to Shark's questioning look, before grabbing the bucket and returning to the water again.

It wasn't until he returned the third time, nearly falling over and spilling half of the water, before he had an idea.

"Shark," he said, panting slightly, "I can't keep up with this. There's just no way."

"Then just take a longer break in between. It won't drain out that fast."

"No. I mean I can't keep bringing water up like this. Even if I did have the energy to keep bringing it up, it's getting dark out. If I'm not back before dark, my sister will come looking for me," Yuma said, knowing that mentioning the fact that more people might show would help persuade Shark to hear him out.

It seemed to have the desired effect, because Shark immediately tensed at the idea of more people.

"Then what are we going to do?" he asked. It warmed Yuma slightly to hear him say 'we', proving that he at least trusted him enough to not just abandon him here.

"Well I have an idea, but–"

"Why do I get the feeling that–"

"You're/I'm not going to like it/this," They finished at the same time.

Yuma wore a look of amusement while Shark's was one of annoyance, however both were quickly dropped in favor of hearing Yuma out.

"Instead of carrying the water to you, I'll just carry you to the water," Yuma said, as if this were a brilliant plan, ignoring the look of shock on his face.

He could have counted down the seconds until Shark exploded.

"Heck no! There's no way I'm letting you carry me! And even if I did, which I won't, if you can't even carry that bucket, how do you think you're going to carry me?!"

"I won't _carry you_ carry you, I'll just like piggy-back you or something. That way I can keep my hands free. And it's not like we have much of a choice anyways. This was one of our favorite places to play as kids, so my sister knows where it's at. If I'm not back home before dark, she'll probably come looking for me, _and_ bring my Granma," Yuma said, hoping to remind him that time was of the essence.

It must have worked, because after a few minutes of a long internal battle that showed on his face, Shark spoke again.

"I guess it can't be helped," he said, shoulders slumping, "But I still don't like this."

"I knew you wouldn't."

"You should go and put you're bucket with the rest of your stuff then."

"Right," Yuma nodded, grabbing the now empty bucket to go and do just that.

When he returned, Shark had shifted his position slightly so that it would make it easier for Yuma to piggy-back him. Yuma had also left his shoes with the rest of his stuff and was once again barefoot.

After much awkward struggling, yelling, and repositioning, Yuma finally got Shark on his back in a way that neither aggravated his tail nor his arm. Shark was still very clearly not happy about this. (Yuma could tell that he was resisting the urge to slap him with his tail.)

"Ready?" Yuma asked him.

"As I'll ever be. Let's just get this over with," Shark huffed impatiently.

"Alright," Yuma said, as he began to climb the slippery rocks closest to the water.

Shark was right about one thing though. He was _much_ heavier than the bucket of water. Unlike a human, who could have wrapped their legs around Yuma's torso to help give themselves some support, Shark's tail was just dead weight. This made it harder than Yuma realized it would be to carry him.

Also, a couple times he had slipped on the rocks, causing Shark to hiss in his ear, "If you drop me…"

Yuma didn't reply as he focused on getting on top of the rocks. Once he was on top he tried to think of what would be the best way to jump down.

Shark peeked over his shoulder.

"Now what?" he asked, "Even if we jump straight down from here we'll either end up hitting our heads, or you'll end up shattering your ankles. It's too shallow."

Yuma's eyes trailed the sand just a few feet off from that, where he could see the sandbar drop off into the much deeper water below. He didn't even hesitate for a second before he made up his mind.

"Then we'll just have to jump out farther," he said, the fire in his eyes alight at a new challenge. It wasn't much farther than the jump at school. He could make that, right?

"Mm. …Wait, _what_?" Shark asked in alarm.

"Ready? On the count of three," he began to back up.

"Yuma, wait, this isn't a good idea–"

"One…"

"You can't make that jump! Not with me on your back! You're going to get us both killed–"

"Two…"

"Yuma, no. Wait. Yuma. Yuma! YUMA!"

"Three!"

Yuma leapt off the rock and headed straight for the deeper water. On his way down he couldn't help but shouting–

"_Kattobingu_!"

It drowned out Shark's yelling–

"You're _crazy_!"

Yuma twisted in mid-air so that Shark would be able to land in the water without hurting himself. They had just cleared the corner of the sandbar shelf.

Yuma felt Shark slide off and push off into the water. Good. Now all he had to do was get back to the surface for air. He wasn't too terribly deep and had just started to swim upwards when he felt a hand grab the back of his shirt collar. Suddenly he was propelled upwards much faster than he could ever hope to swim.

Yuma gasped for air as they broke the surface, not even having time to open his eyes before he heard a splash behind him.

He was still shaking the water out of his hair and clearing it out of his eyes when he heard Shark behind him.

"You're crazy, Yuma!" he cheered, his tone and expression not matching his insults, "Completely insane!"

Shark dove in and out of the water a few more times before stopping so as not to aggravate his wounds any more. However, that didn't stop him from swimming a full 360 circle around Yuma faster than he could keep up with. The movement was still stiff where the bandages were, but was otherwise more fluid than Yuma would have expected, so that was a good sign.

He came to a stop in front of Yuma. They exchange identical adrenaline-high grins before Shark calmed himself enough to speak.

"Yuma, thank you."

"It was no problem–"

"No really. I mean it. And I don't say that a lot."

"Yeah, I kind of picked up on that," Yuma teased.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean," Shark said with mock anger.

Yuma snickered and shark's grin became wider.

They sat in silence for a moment, Yuma steadily treading water. As Yuma's feet found the edge of the sandbar, Shark looked back at the now darkening sky, the first few stars just barely starting to peek through.

"I guess you had better go home now, huh?" Shark said with just the slightest hint of sadness as he turned back to Yuma.

"Yeah," Yuma said, much sadder at the idea of leaving his newfound friend.

Shark had barely turned away before Yuma grabbed his wrist.

"Wait," he said. Shark turned back to him.

"Will you be here again? Tomorrow? Around 3:30? I don't get out of school until a little past 2:00 and it takes about an hour to get here, but I was hoping… that maybe… we could be friends?" Yuma asked, wanted nothing more than making his childhood fantasy of befriending a merperson come true.

Shark was silent for a moment, thinking it over.

"I mean, if you don't want to come back here, I understand, but–"

Sensing that he was about to start rambling, Shark cut him off.

"Yuma."

He looked up.

"Around 3:30, right?" he asked, unsure if this was a good idea.

"Yeah," Yuma said, hope making its way back into his voice.

"…Alright. We can try to be friends."

"Really? Yes!" he shouted, jumping to his feet, "We're going to be the best friends ever! Even if I still don't know your real name," Yuma joked, earning a slight chuckle out of Shark as well.

"Don't you have to get going?" he asked.

"Oh! Yeah! Right! See you tomorrow, Shark!" he shouted over his shoulder as he sped back up the beach.

"See you tomorrow, Yuma," Shark echoed, looking unsure of something before diving back into the water.

Yuma was almost to where he left his stuff before a shout drew his attention back.

"Yuma!"

He turned around to see Shark already a good distance out.

"Ryoga!"

"What?!"

"It's Ryoga!" he repeated before diving back into the water disappearing from sight completely.

Yuma split out into a wide grin as he figured it out a second after "Shark" dove back into the water.

He finally knew his real name!

Yuma was in high spirits as he threw his backpack and bucket over his shoulders, dislodging the airboard from where he had left it, ready to start for home.

He was cold, soaked, exhausted, and probably in a lot of trouble when he got home, but today was definitely one of the best days he ever had.

He couldn't wait for tomorrow.

* * *

><p>FrenchFryGirl: Phew... I'm finally done with that. I told you all I like to write. :)<p>

So about this chapter:

As to why I chose to do this one first, well... it's the first thing that popped into my head. Sharks, mermaids... you know. I know that there are already a few good Merman Shark fics out there, but there aren't nearly enough. It seemed a bit cliché to me at first but I couldn't get the idea out of my head so I thought _Why not_? (Which is unusual for me, because I hate clichés. But, then again, that's what most AUs are based off of, right?)

Alright; names. I did say that I was dropping the Japanese names, right? While some of them I still used because it looks like their English names are just shorter versions of their Japanese names, so I made their English names into nicknames. I may end up just using the Japanese names without the honorifics anyways, because some of the English names just sound weird. (I mean, Bronk? Seriously? It's like they were trying to say Brock, but realized that there was already one.) As for why I used Ryoga instead of Reginald; it just sounds better. I always imagined that Reginald was more like an embarrassing middle name for him anyways. (No offense against anyone named Reginald. I actually think it's a cool name. It just doesn't fit _Shark_.)

Speaking of the characters, the thing I need help on the most is; are they in character (as much as they possibly can be)? I know that Shark is out-of-character. He should be. Obviously, merman Shark is going to act a little bit differently from regular Shark. Not to mention, he was dying. Obviously you're going to act a little bit different from normal if you're dying. If I made a sequel to this or did something from Shark's point-of-view, he'd only get about halfway home before realizing how stupid it was to blindly trust Yuma and make plans to see him tomorrow, all without telling him not to tell anyone about him.

Speaking of sequels:

The next chapter will **not **be a continuation of this. It will be the starting chapter of another AU. I will not continue this particular AU unless I get enough requests for it. However, if anyone else wants to give it a shot, go right on ahead. There's nothing stopping you. There's no OCs in this one that I can lay claim to, and while I do own this particular version of the mermaid AU, as I said before, plenty of other people have done this AU. If anyone wants to write a sequel to this themselves, be my guest. Or better yet; put your own spin on this AU. It's what I'm trying to encourage people to do.

If anyone's curious, the next one's supposed to be a Genie AU. (Maybe. Plans change.)

Also, it took me about a month to do this. I started in late October/early November, and it's almost Thanksgiving now. So it'll probably take that long before I get the next one up. Sorry, but I'm not a chapter-a-week kind of person.

I think that's about it for now. I'll see if I can post summary of the other AUs I have planned to my profile. If you see one you want me to do, let me know. Or try one out yourself.

-FFG


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